1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to network switches and management tools, and more particularly to switches and management tools for executing and deploying network services.
2. Description of the Related Art
One problem that exists today in an enterprise environment is that a number of dedicated appliances are necessary to perform various network functions, such as wireless LAN control, unified communications, encryption and the like. This is problematic because it represents additional devices to purchase and maintain and also increases routing and trip times for packets as they must traverse additional links. This is shown graphically in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates a general network architecture 100 for an enterprise with branch offices and various campuses. A campus core network 102 includes a plurality of interconnected core switches 104. The core switches 104 are connected to a data center (not shown). A router 106 is connected to the core switches 104. The router 106 connects through a wide area network (WAN) 108 to a branch office network 110. The branch office network no includes a unified device 112 which operates as a router, virtual private network interface, unified communication interface, switch and PBX. Therefore telephones 114, computers 116 and wireless access points 118 are connected to the unified device 112. A campus aggregation network 120 is connected to the campus core network 102. The campus aggregation network 120 includes switches 122 and 124. The switches 122 and 124 are connected to the core network switches 104. Connected to the switch 124 in FIG. 1 is a WLAN controller 126, a call manager 128, a network access controller 130, a unified threat management (UTM) device 132 and a network behavioral analysis (NBA) device 134. These are the various dedicated appliances for the relative type of traffic. For example, the WLAN controller 126 is used to manage wireless access control into the network, the call manager 128 handles unified communications, and the UTM 132 handles various threats and the like. A large campus access network 140 includes a series of stackable switches 142 which are connected to the switches 122 and 124. Connected to the stackable switches 142 are telephones 144, computers 146 and wireless access points 148. A medium campus access network 150 includes a series of switches 152 and 154 which are connected to the switches 122 and 124. Connected to the switches 152 and 154 are telephones 156, computers 158 and wireless access points 160. A small campus access network 170 includes a switch 172 which is connected to the switches 122 and 124. A series of computers 174 are shown connected to switch 172. This is a typical enterprise network configuration with the various exemplary pieces. It can be seen that to handle the wireless access traffic for the various wireless access points such as 148 and 160, network traffic would be transferred through the relevant switches such as 142, 154 and 124 to the WLAN controller 126 for control. The network traffic would then transfer from the WLAN controller 126 back to the switch 124 to the core switches 104. Similarly, unified communications such as call setups would have to travel from the telephones 144 or 156 to the call manager 128 through the switches 153, 154, 142 and 124 and then back to the network as required. This illustrates the multiple routes and back-and-forth that must occur with the dedicated appliances. It is desirable to remove these special-purpose appliances.